Sukeyuki Hitomi

Sukeyuki Hitomi (23 February 1897-6 June 1976) was a Lieutenant-General of the Imperial Japanese Army during the Pacific War.

Biography
Sukeyuki Hitomi was born in Nankoku, Kochi Prefecture, Japan on 23 February 1897. He was a graduate of both the Imperial Japanese Army Academy (1918) and the Army War College (1926), and he rose through the ranks during peacetime. In 1937, he was deployed to China to command an infantry regiment fighting in Shanghai, and Hitomi was promoted to Major-General in 1939 and then to Lieutenant-General in 1942. Hitomi was then given command of the sizeable Japanese garrison of Ponape in the Caroline Islands, commanding six regiments of IJA troops. Beginning in July 1944, the US Air Force under Odo B. Wilhelm extensively bombed Ponape in ground attacks, targeting Japanese troops on the ground. Hitomi was forced to surrender to the United States on 15 August 1945 at the war's end, and he was paroled after the war. Hitomi died in 1976.